The undersigned your Petitioners holding the office of Postmasters under the General Government most respectfully represent to your respective bodies.

That the duties which their respective station imposes upon them are of an onerous and injurious character requiring their attention during a part and many of them a large portion of the night. It is known to your bodies that the last Session of Congress in revising the Laws for the Government of the Post Office Department repealed the 14^th section of the Act of 1825 which has had the effect of reducing the pay of nearly all the Post masters in our Country without discriminating between those who perform day and night service. This change of the Law has operated in a most unequal manner, inasmuch as it has had the effect of reducing the pay of the Post Master from one third to one half of his previous receipts, while, neither the amount, nor manner of his service is in the slightest degree diminished. It is to this feature in the operation of the act of 1846 & 7, that we most respectfully invite your attention and pray your favourable consideration. At the office of each of the undersigned, the average time of the arrival, of the Mail is between the hours of 9 ^oClock P.M. and 5 ^oClock A.M., which as you will perceive requires his attention a large portion of the night. And add to this, the farther consideration that the Post master is required to furnish at his own expense lights, fuel, and an office, and we venture the assertion that no officers under the General Government, holds a more responsible station, or receives for his important service a more meagre and inconsiderable pay. Believing that you are willing and ready to rectify such inequalities in the operation of a Law so vitally important to the interests of a very large number of faithful Government officers, we appeal to you with the confident hope and belief that you will apply the corrective which is alone vested in your hands, and which a sense of Justice & propriety dictates. And as in duty bound, your petitioners will ever pray &c.